POLITICS

The British economy will contract this quarter or next, warns accountancy and business advisory group BDO.

Israeli officials deny that the international hackers' group were responsible for the malfunction of several government-run websites on Sunday.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi denied planning to quit on Monday. In a message update to his Facebook page, he said "the rumours of my resignation are groundless."

Laila Soueif, the mother of the prominent activist and blogger Alaa Abd El Fattah, currently in prison under investigation has announced she began a hunger strike Sunday, to oppose the imprisonment of her son by the country's ruling military council, accused of represing activists and religious minorities.

Delegates on board the Freedom Waves to Gaza flotilla have been mistreated by Israeli forces and are currently being detained in Givon prison, central Israel, say activist groups.

The Muslim world has begun celebrating Eid al-Adha, a festival where humility and solidarity within the community is put promoted.

An e-petition calling for tighter regulation on immigration is drawing close to 100,000 signatures which would trigger a debate in the House of Commons.

A UN peacekeeper has been killed in Sudan's Southern Darfur and two other have been injured near the capital of South Darfur state, the United Nations said in a statement. It came less than one month after three peacekeepers were killed in an ambush in North Darfur.

China's political leadership may be grappling with the flip side of technology after a world-class innovation like its high-speed rail system hit a major road block in terms of safety and security. However, China's space experts have been able to consolidate the country's position as an emerging competitor to the U.S. by means of a couple of success stories of late.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi denied media reports that he could resign within hours.

A break-up of the single currency would be economically better for the UK within five years, according to a leading research group.

Tombs of the family of dead Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi have been desecrated, an Algerian newspaper has reported, after a gang attacked a Sirte cemetery of the Gadadfa tribe.

The Avon and Somerset police are investigating reports by eye-witnesses of black smoke on the carriageway. It is believed that the smoke could be one of the reasons behind what is one of the worst road crashes in the United Kingdom's history. On Sunday though, the Somerset section (both north and southbound, between Junctions 24 and 25) was re-opened at 9 p.m.

Feminist protesters gathered outside the 60th Miss World competition in London Sunday night.

Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni declared Sunday that Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right coalition "has no majority in Parliament" as the government faces a key confidence vote Tuesday on emergency economic measures.

The new president of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, will look to promote “growth” in the eurozone, according to a leading portfolio manager in the City of London.

After 48 hours of political deadlock, Greece will name its new prime minster by the end of the day after the outgoing premier, George Papandreou, and opposition leader, Antonis Samaras, reached a consensus with the country’s president Carolos Papoulias yesterday evening.

Venezuelan-born militant Ilich Ramirez Sanchez - dubbed "Carlos the Jackal"- will go on trial in Paris on Monday charged with terrorism. The self-styled Cold War revolutionary is accused of terrorist bombings in France in 1982 and 1983 that killed 11 and injured more than 100 people.

The Avon and Somerset police said the operation to forensically lift the vehicles involved in Friday's crash on M5 motorway was completed Sunday morning.

In one of the worst road-collisions in history of the UK, around 27 vehicles have crashed on the M5 motorway near Taunton, Somerset, claiming several lives and leaving around 35 people hurt, the police said on Friday.

Suicide bombers have targeted a military base in the northern Nigerian city of Maiduguri, official said and several blasts have been recorded.

Varying reports on Friday's death toll from Syria have sparked international criticism as the fragile Arab League roadmap to solve the crisis in the country is already under serious threat.

Israeli naval forces have boarded two boats carrying humanitarian aid to Palestinian citizens living in the Gaza strip.

35-year-old Qiu Xiang is the sixth person to die in such a grisly protest against the Chinese.

The German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, has confessed that there is no deal on the table to fund the IMF or a Eurozone firewall which has sent markets tumbling across the world.

Travellers evicted from Dale Farm in Essex are threatening to return once the site has been cleared, say the lawyers for the local authority that removed them.

A member of the online activist movement Anonymous who was kidnapped last month in Mexico by a ruthless drug cartel has been released, a spokesman for the organisation said.

A few days after Chinese artist Ai Weiwei warned he would fight tax evasion charges "to the death", as the Chinese authorities ordered a company linked to him to pay 15 million Yuan (£1.5 million), financial support from fellow activists has been pouring.

Jamie Pyatt, district editor of the tabloid, has been arrested in connection with the Metropolitan Poilce's investigation into corrupt payments to police officers.